Anyone got any advice on buying one?
I'm thinking about what to get from Santa right now, and it's something I have always wanted to get. Unfortunately, much of the advice I can see online suggests that it's a bad idea to order one through the mail from India, and there are very few stores that sell them in the US.
Reading a little deeper into it, there are a handful of makers in India who do provide good quality, but they're generally much more expensive.
I might look around in the US to see what I can find, but what I'm really interested in is how easy it is to improve a mediocre instrument. Obviously a broken gourd or a defective neck are things that are a deal breaker, and things like tuning pegs, frets, strings, etc. are easy to replace.
What I'm really thinking of is how easy is it to put a better bridge on (or rework an existing one), or if tuning peg holes need to be rebored, are there problems with getting standard tuning pegs in the rebored hole.
Anything like that really - just seeing if anyone owns one or has improved one.
Buying a Sitar
-
- KVRAF
- 14991 posts since 26 Jun, 2006 from San Francisco Bay Area
I don't know what your price range is, but I know that you can order "student" models from Lark In The Morning. I think they're pretty reputable. I've always wanted one myself, but the price isn't just monitary... you have to learn to play it too. 
Zerocrossing Media
4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~
4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
They're made by manufacturers in India, so again I can't really tell the quality. I'll research some of them, but as for price they're in the same kind of range that I have seen so far.
-
- KVRAF
- 3303 posts since 6 Jul, 2012 from Sick-cily
-
- KVRist
- 440 posts since 22 Feb, 2014
I thought about buying one as well. Seems like 500 dollars can get you a really really good one. I have no idea about them except how they sound though. You'd have to be good at playing live in real time for it to count, unless you sampled it.
-
- KVRAF
- 3169 posts since 13 Jun, 2004
once you get a whammy bar and some humbuckers on it...robojam wrote:I guess they don't really need much in the way of maintenance...
the other interesting indian instrument..is it called a saranghi? a bowed thing.
-
- KVRian
- 905 posts since 3 Sep, 2011
-
- KVRer
- 1 posts since 28 Feb, 2015
AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.
Hi, saw your post, I saw that Djembe Beach carried sitars, and the prices look good.http://djembebeach.com/strings/sitars.h ... 39ddc8d0e7 (http://djembebeach.com/strings/sitars.html?SID=42f1dc75c309d615e4e24c39ddc8d0e7)
http://djembebeach.com/strings/sitars/r ... g-bag.html (http://djembebeach.com/strings/sitars/rks-fancy-pro-sitar-w-gig-bag.html)
Hope you find one!
-
- KVRist
- 34 posts since 5 Jun, 2005
Longtime sitar player here.
1. You can customize Sitars and make even cheap ones sound okay. Half the sound comes from the bridge, called jawari (lit. "giving life"). You can make a dry, piano like sound with lots sustain (Vilayat Khani, closed) or Ravi Shankar percussive buzz (open). But doing this needs experience, good files and patience.
2. Ebay cheapies from India are firewood. New RKS same. Both Rikhi Ram shops nowadays stupid expensive. Main problem with new ones is the possibility of neck movement after some time, then > firewood.
3. If you want to lean the real stuff, you go India, there a good teacher can get a good one for you. Nowadays Sitar production in India is slightly industrialized handwork; really good Sitars are an endangered species.
4. If you are too lazy to learn for 20 years and hang around in rather smelly cities or only want to play guitar style ("Norwegian Firewood" etc.), okay entry level can be found at Raincity Music, Sitars. etc (you are in US?) or maybe used at Ebay or Craigslist. PM for hints.
1. You can customize Sitars and make even cheap ones sound okay. Half the sound comes from the bridge, called jawari (lit. "giving life"). You can make a dry, piano like sound with lots sustain (Vilayat Khani, closed) or Ravi Shankar percussive buzz (open). But doing this needs experience, good files and patience.
2. Ebay cheapies from India are firewood. New RKS same. Both Rikhi Ram shops nowadays stupid expensive. Main problem with new ones is the possibility of neck movement after some time, then > firewood.
3. If you want to lean the real stuff, you go India, there a good teacher can get a good one for you. Nowadays Sitar production in India is slightly industrialized handwork; really good Sitars are an endangered species.
4. If you are too lazy to learn for 20 years and hang around in rather smelly cities or only want to play guitar style ("Norwegian Firewood" etc.), okay entry level can be found at Raincity Music, Sitars. etc (you are in US?) or maybe used at Ebay or Craigslist. PM for hints.
